"Son of a -" I hissed, throwing my rabbit trap to the ground in frustration. This was the last and final of my snares, all of which had been tripped. Four out of five of them had blood traces, telling me that I had caught some game and someone had taken my catch.

I looked around the red sandstone walls of the canyon, looking for foot prints or, even worse, soldiers. In the wall opposite me was a message wedged in a crack on the surface.

Caught yourself some bunny rabbits? That's just cruel, don't you think? We set the little crippled bastards free for you, but they didn't get far. Decided to keep em. If you're hungry, come for a visit

"Gerry" I growled. This means that they are closing in on my hideout. They have slowly been starving me in, forcing me to hunt closer and closer to home.

It took an hour to climb to the top of the canyon edge, and when I scanned the horizon, I was shocked at what I found. The sun was setting, casting a blinding glare off of the old LA building miles from me.

"Crap" I mumbled. On top of the tallest building left stood a massive electronic billboard, one that had not been functioning since the blast. On it was the flickering image of a face.

With a strong brow and intense eyes, the image was of an individual I knew well. He now had a beard, short but full, making him appear more mature than the young face I remember. His aquiline nose and prominent cheek bones easily increased his attractiveness. His eyes are what truly caught me off guard. A coldness could be felt, seething anger and livid bitterness eminated from the depths of the cerulean blue pits, even through a picture. He had always had piercing intense eyes, but slowly those eyes had become warmer, more open. Apparently he had regressed back to the emotionless depths of a recent past.

"My my Brock, someone is quite angry" I murmured quietly. The most shocking part was possibly the fact that The Metropolis had some source of electricity. Perhaps man power operated generators? The billboards intent was obvious. Underneath Brock's face were the words "You're safer in a city. You're welcome in our city. We are the only city." Fear tactics used to persuade stragglers into joining the militia pit that was The Metropolis.

I slowly made my way back down to the crevice bottom, thinking about my options as I went.

To me, it appeared my only option was to pack up and move further outward, into the no man's land, or else Brock and his Merry Douchebags would catch me.

As I made my way through the rocky terrain to my home, I had the intense feeling that someone or something was following me. I unholstered my glock and on the next large boulder pivoted around sharply, ready to shoot.

The low rumblings of a growl came from the chasm's edge above me. I trained my gun on the spot I thought the noise came from, but then lowered it when the mountain lion exposed itself.

"Well hi there. I guess I would growl if someone pointed a gun at me too" I said, holstering my gun. The mountain lion studied me for a few minutes, but then made its way down the side to my location.

I gently held my hand out, hoping that large, wild cats were like dogs in the sense that they liked to confirm your scent. The lion did indeed smell my hand, then proceeded to bite it viciously, drawing blood.

"Ow, what the hell?!" I snapped, but calmed when I felt the soothing warmth from the rough surface of the lions tongue. Bite me then lick me? How very... cat-like.

"I guess I should name you... or at least find out what sex you are" I mumbled, suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable with invading his/her privacy.

"Male. So how about I name you... Max?" he growled intensely at that. "Or not... how about something more... powerful?" I asked as we made our way back to my bunk in a leisurely pace.

"Blade? Hercules? Grimm? Goliath? Ares?" the large cat ignored every name I prattled off until the last one, at which he turned his head, looking up at me. "Ares? You like Ares? Alright, I like that too. God of War. Seems appropriate."

Just as he had the other day, Ares scouted out my bunker then proceeded to head out the door.

"Bye" I sighed.

___________________

I had to move. There was no way around it. For the last two weeks, those stupid men had been closing in on my position and my daily routines were leading them there. But there weren't many places I could go due to lack of resources. The only place safer than my hideout was The Metropolis and there was no way I could hide so close to....

Or was there?

I stood up slowly and walked to my pod, pulling up the menu on it. All the feature alteration options popped up on the LED screen.

They would never be expecting it, after all, who would waste a life to change their appearance?

I began doctoring my image, making the skin of my picture on screen the standard tan. I made my hair dark brown and wavy and altered some of my features to fit better. When the option to change my eye color came up, I felt a wave of nausea hit my stomach.

"I can't..." I mumbled, leaving my eyes and finishing with the last option, the location of my 'lives left' tattoo. Something I used to proudly flaunt on my chest, I knew I now had to hide it or else someone would figure out what I had done. Shrinking the black ink down to the size of a quarter, I decided to place it low on my pelvic bone, out of sight.

Looking at the overall finished image, I felt my stomach drop.

It wasn't me...

But it was going to have to become me.

I grabbed my knife from my pack and took a deep breath before plunging the blade into my heart. I heard the gurgling crunch as the blade sank deep and my body quickly collapsed to the ground as each pump of my heart pounded into the blade, killing me. Every instinct in my body screamed to pull it out as I gasped and choked on blood that began pouring from my mouth. I squeezed my eyes shut to endure the never ending pain.

And then I woke up.